He had a love of flying. After school, he liked to visit the airport and his hobby was to memorize the records of World War I flying aces.[2] He idolized U.S. pilot Speed Holman[5] who, Hill once explained, "used to make his approach to the spectators at state fairs flying past the grandstand upside down."[2] Hill obtained his pilot’s licence at the age of 16.[4] Airplanes featured prominently in his later films and are frequently crashed as well — in Slaughterhouse-Five, The World According to Garp and especially The Great Waldo Pepper which showed the influence on Hill of pilots like Speed Holman.

Hill used his Korean War experience as the basis for a TV drama, "My Brother's Keeper," which appeared on Kraft Television Theater, with Hill himself in the cast. During his military service at Cherry Point, he had had to be 'talked down' by a ground controller at Atlanta airport, an incident that led to his writing the screenplay. The episode was performed and transmitted live in 1953.[4] After his demobilisation, he joined the company as a writer, later becoming a director of various Kraft episodes.[3] He won an Emmy for writing and directing a TV version of A Night to Remember, the story of the sinking of the Titanic.[4]

The 1964 Peter Sellers movie The World of Henry Orient raised Hill's profile in Hollywood, but his 1966 blockbuster Hawaii was a setback. Reportedly, when budget estimates reached $14 million, the producers attempted to replace Hill with Arthur Hiller; but abandoned the idea after hundreds of native Polynesians in the cast went on strike, declaring: "We can and will perform only for our friend, Monsieur Hill."[3]

In the Margaret Webster theatre company, Hill met Louisa Horton, whom he married on April 7, 1951.[1] They later divorced. Hill was survived by Horton, their two sons, including George Roy Hill III and John Hill, two daughters and 12 grandchildren, including George Roy Hill IV.[6]

After his second return to civilian life, Hill bought an open-cockpit Waco biplane built in 1930, which he retained until about ten years before his death.[2]